Chapter 3 - The consequences.

Lyra

“I’m not leaving. Your little temper tantrum has gone far enough, and we are going to sort this out.” Eli grips my upper arm and almost drags me to our room. He opens the shower without letting go of me and shoves me under the cold water without giving me the opportunity to get undressed.

I’m honestly too tired to fight him. The water warms up, and I slowly strip out of my soaked dress while he stands beside the shower growling and shifting from one foot to the other. I know why he just did what he did. His wolf senses are far stronger than my human ones.

He can smell what I did. If his guards didn’t tell him, he could smell it from the moment I got out of the car. That was the intention. Once I’m done, I get out and he hands me a towel. I glare at him as I move around our room and get dressed.

Only when I’m completely dressed, do I turn to glare at him. With my arms crossed tightly over my chest, I push down the guilt that I feel for what I’ve done. I might have had a one-night stand, but he has been doing this to me for years! Even though I only officially found out the day before.

“Our contract states that if you are a cheater, I get half of your money and I can leave you.” It doesn’t say that exactly. It states that if one of us cheats, the other has to pay half of what they have and then the one who is cheated on can leave.

“You also cheated!” He growls.

“Only once and only because I found out what you’ve been doing behind my back!” I hit back, but I realize at this rate we are only going to go around in circles and never get anywhere. I take a deep breath and decide that I can’t spend another second in the room with him hovering so close.

He follows me as I make my way down the stairs and grabs my arm as soon as we reach the bottom step. Dragging me into his office, he starts to look for something. I know what he is looking for. He’s used it so much over the years that I’m surprised he doesn’t have it right there on his desk.

I pour two drinks and put one on his side of his desk and take a seat. Where else am I going to go? I left my human life behind when I married Eli. I don’t have a family. I was an orphan. He finds the contract and sits down before glaring at me.

“You aren’t going to be able to threaten me with that this time, Eli. You have been having a full-blown affair since before we were married.” I take a sip while raising one brow and he sighs.

“Well, you can’t claim half of what I have. You also cheated.” He sits back looking far too happy with himself and I copy his movement even though I don’t feel that same confidence. For once, the shoe is on the other foot.

Yes, he has threatened me with that damn contract before, but mostly I thought we had a good life. I thought we were happy. I thought I was enough for him, but clearly, I was living under an illusion. He was faking it the entire time.

“It’s clear that you never loved me. I don’t love you anymore.” That’s a lie and we both know it, but all I can think about is hurting him as much as he hurt me. “I want to leave. I will just take what I came here with. I don’t want anything of yours, and since we both cheated, you can’t take anything of mine.”

“HA! You don’t have much.” He laughs and takes a sip of his drink. “Where would you go? How would you survive? Look, I’m sorry. I know what I did was wrong, but I’ve already broken it off. If you leave now …” He sighs and, for the first time, I actually see sadness in his eyes.

“Do you expect me to stay?” Honestly, I haven’t really thought about what I want to do. I don’t know if I want to throw away what we have even if he cheated on me all this time. I fell in love with Eli. I love him. Even after everything. I made a promise, and I’m not the kind of person to just leave.

“Of course, I want you to stay. What I have with her is just sex. It doesn’t mean anything.” He gets up and sits down on the chair beside me. I’m so confused that I feel as if I can’t really breathe. There is too much to take into account.

“She has to go. I’m not staying if she is staying.” I don’t think that he will agree to it, but those are my terms. I can’t work on our relationship if that woman is still around. I can’t get to the point where I can think about forgiving him if she is still there reminding me why I’m furious.

“She’s a pack member, Lyra. I can’t just …” He starts, and I get up, but he grips my wrist on my way out. He sighs deeply. “Fine. I will send her away, but you have to give me time to find her a new home. I have to speak to some of the nearby packs first.” He actually sounds defeated.

I nod and leave his office, walking into my omega as soon as I am in the foyer. I can see it in her eyes the moment she looks at me, and I’m not sure if I’ve just made the right decision. I’m not sure if I will be able to stand one moment of the looks that the pack is going to give me.

I wasn’t that welcome when I first came here. I had to prove myself and my worth for so long. Meanwhile, they all probably knew he had some back-up. I’m just grateful we haven’t had any kids. I wouldn’t be able to deal with my life right now if I also had kids to deal with.

“I will be eating lunch on my own in my office today. I don’t want to see anyone.” I add the last bit when she opens her mouth to remind me about some meeting I probably planned. I just can’t deal at the moment. My mind keeps drifting to the night before, and it is driving me insane.